Netting and bees / pollinators

Asked July 1, 2019, 2:47 PM EDT

We have a small garden, 10'x8', immediately next to the house that was being eaten by deer, so I installed a 6 to 7 foot tall fence made from polypropylene wildlife netting. After installing, I noticed a wasp that was having difficulty getting through the mesh. It eventually got through, but it made me wonder if the mesh fence around such a small garden will keep bees and other pollinators from reaching the plants. Is this a problem? Of course, they can go up and over the top, but I don't know whether bees do that or just fly horizontally for the most part (which is what it looks like!) If you need it, the specific product was Sta-Green Wildlife Netting Black Polypropylene No Dig Garden Hardware Cloth Rolled Fencing, which I bought at Lowes. I hope this isn't a problem, because the fencing was easy to set up and not very expensive. I'd rather not go back to chicken wire. Thank you.

Montgomery CountyMaryland

1 Response

The pollinators are perfectly capable of navigating their way into your garden in spite of the netting. No, they are not capable of only flying horizontally.